Sunday, May 20, 2007

Cleaners lobby London debate

RMT TUBE and rail cleaners last Saturday converged on the Queen Elizabeth II conference to hammer home their message that the time has come to end poverty pay on the capital’s transport network. Together with families and supporters, the cleaners lobbied the Mayor’s “State of London” debate. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “The Mayor has called this conference to discuss how everyone can benefit from London’s success. “A good start would be to end the scandal of poverty pay and ensure that the people cleaning London’s stations and trains get paid at least the London minimum wage of £7.20 and get at least 28 days’ paid holiday. “The cleaning subbies are parasites who make their money by employing people on rock-bottom rates and awful conditions, and the time has come to give them their marching orders and bring all cleaning services back in-house. “The unity of our members across the capital has already prevented more than 200 ISS cleaners being made compulsorily redundant, and we will be holding Metronet to the commitment we squeezed out of them to bring their cleaning back in-house. “No city that tolerates the abuse of workers on poverty pay can claim to be a world leader, and no-one can wash their hands of their responsibility to end the scourge of low pay on the capital’s transport networks.”